


SkyScrapper

by Starlightevil123



Category: Epic Mickey (Video Games)
Genre: Includes forgotten characters not in Epic Mickey
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 23:41:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23985478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlightevil123/pseuds/Starlightevil123
Summary: "Me? Well, I'm Michael Theodor Mouse, but you can call me Mickey for short. I don't remember much before this, except something about a brush. After that, everything went black. When I woke up, I was in a lab, and my chest was hurting. Ugh, things are going to be tough, but luckily, I got something to protect myself! Right? Haha!"
Comments: 3
Kudos: 8





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This isn't my au, this belongs to a pal on Instagram, here's a link: https://instagram.com/artisticmouse?igshid=kbqy18xyaevd
> 
> They allowed me to write their au, you can as them.

Normally, a jungle would be hot and humid, but with hours of exploration, the climate was ten times worse. She could tell you first hand, as she pushed past the green obstacles in her way, sweat rolling down her body. She got occasional scratches from the low, small branches, but it wasn't anything major. However, despite the animal cries and the wind causing the greenery to quiver, it was too quiet.

“Whaaa!” A voice cried out behind her, followed by the sound of a body hitting the ground. She knew what it sounded like because her clumsy carefree company kept tripping and falling. She turned her head to look behind her, to see him on the ground, face into the dirt. 

“I told you there was a log there.” She said, turning fully towards him. She walked over to him, crouching down, and grabbing him by the shirt to pick him up. “You need to be more careful, Toby. You can’t just trip over everything, you’re gonna give yourself a bloody nose.”

“I didn’t mean to, Alice… I didn’t notice it. It was smaller than I thought it was.” Toby brushed off the dirt on his clothes. He looked grumpy, which was unusual for this happy-go-lucky guy, but this journey can get anyone’s goat. Also, he was hungry. 

“I guess log was an overstatement…” Alice sighed and looked back at the path. “Path” was an inaccurate word, but the way they were going was the clearest they could take. “We need to keep going. We don’t know how long it’ll be till they catch up to us!”

Toby grinned as he put his hands behind his head “I doubt they’ll catch up. If we’re having a hard time, imagine how they’re doing.”

Alice rolled her eyes. While Toby was right, the only way to know was when it was too late. “We should still get going. We shouldn’t get lost in the night if we can help it.”

Toby nodded as Alice continued onward. He quickly followed after her and slowed down when he caught up. Toby started humming a tune to entertain himself, and Alice ignored it. Both of them stopped when they saw something shiny on the side of the road. 

Toby went over to it, crouching down and picking it up. “Hey… Isn’t this…?”

Alice went over next to him. “The queen’s amulet.” 

“What is it doing- Whoa!”

Underneath them, the ground rose. But it wasn’t the ground, it was a net. Toby ended up letting go of the amulet and flew into the hands of another person. Supposedly, their captor.

“Well, isn’t this lovely?” They said. “I truly didn’t think it would work, but you two feel for the most basic trick in the book!” They chuckled, then laughed. They dangled the amulet by their fingers. 

Alice growled. “Who are you?! What is the meaning of this?!”

They glanced away, swinging the amulet in a taunting manner as they smirked. “Oh, just a simple man with a simple plan to take over Wasteland.” They shrugged. “I would tell you my name, but you won’t be around for longer for it to mean anything.”

As if on cue, tons of robots emerged from the shadows of the trees. Alice looked around, finding no way to escape. Even if they escaped the net, they were surrounded. Toby looked ashamed. It was technically his fault.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me…” The figure dropped the amulet and crushed it under their heel. “I bid you, as my friend would say, adieu.”

“You won’t get away with this-“ Before Alice could finish, she ended up passing out. The last thing she heard was menacing laughter in the air.


	2. Chapter One

A loud slam echoed through the halls, heavy short breaths escaped him. He leaned against the door, his entire being filled with anger. He knew it wasn’t like him, but with his chest aching, head-spinning, and mind fuzzy, he didn’t care. “Stupid lab,” he grumbled as he started walking. “I hate those stupid robots… What’s their deal anyway?”

He continued onwards, and only stopped when he heard some footsteps. The pattern was slow and slightly unsure, but he should be cautious. He tip-toed until he got to the corner, and waited. After a moment, he quickly turned said corner and pointed the weapon he conveniently had on him. The weapon was an oversized, glorified brush.

“Stop right there!” He shouted, pointing the oversized, glorified brush at a person. The person was wearing a hood, and they raised their hands in the air. He continued, “Who are you? Take off your hood and show yourself!”

“Whoa! Hey! Calm down, man! I’m a friendly bear!” They said, their voice masculine, so it was a guy. The man took off his hood, revealing a, as he claimed, bear. “Name’s Toby, and I got nothing to do with the Mad Doctor.”

“Mad Doctor?”

“Yeah! The guy who owns this lab!” Toby sighed. “You must be new around here! What’s your name?” Toby asked as he held out his hand.

“Michael, Mickey for short.”

“Wait, Mickey… as in, Mickey Mouse?” Toby looked at Mickey. “That can't be… Mickey’s ears don’t melt like that… Unless you’re a scrapped version…” 

Mickey raised an eyebrow. His ears weren’t melting! What was this man talking about? Mickey reached up to feel he was sorta… squishy. He pulled his hands down and looked at them to see that his gloves were stained by a weird purplish substance. 

Toby looked back. “We need to get out of here. I found the exit as I was looking for a friend of mine. I can take you to it if you’d like.”

Mickey smiled, but it felt like he was smiling wrong. Like he was smirking. “Finding the exit would be one less thing to worry about, thanks.”

Toby smiled. “Follow me! You’ll be out of here in no time!” 

~~~

Hours passed as they ran through the halls. The sound of feet meeting metal echoes in the halls, and their ears. The lab was massive, and those robots were everywhere. They are called beetleworx, but most of them look nothing like beetles.

“It’s over here! Around this corner!” Toby pointed ahead, at the mentioned corner. “I told you that you’d be out of here in no time!”

Mickey wanted to say something about how it took too long, but that was gonna be saved for later. Eventually, they made it to the corner and turned it. However, it wasn’t going to be that easy. 

“Dead end… Out of all the things, a dead end...” Mickey mumbled before he turned around and glared at Toby. “A dead-end is the opposite of what I wanted you to lead me to!”

Toby backed up. His hands raised, and his eyes wide. “Whoa! Chill dude! You’re melting even more now!”

“I’m not-“ Mickey looked at his arm, seeing droplets of black coming off and floating to the sky. “What the…”

Toby walked past Mickey and placed his hands on the wall. “There was a door here, and it was open.” He felt the wall, trying to find something. “I swear, but it’s like this lab is changing on us!”

Suddenly, red lights started flashing as an alarm went off. Some static was heard, followed by a voice. “MM1928 and TB1928 have escaped! I repeat! MM1928 and TB1928 have escaped! Capture them! Do not hesitate to kill if they resist!”

Mickey shook his head. “So they notice, huh?” He started to walk away from the door. ”Come on. I don’t want to get caught here.”

Toby followed. “I wonder why we have the same ID numbers?” He innocently asked as they walked past a security camera.

“Oho, what’s this?” The one behind the monitors said. “Those little pests are trying to escape? Well, that won’t do.”

They reached over to a button next to them. “Slight change of plans,” they said when they pushed the button. “MM1928 and TB1928 won’t be necessary anymore. Feel free to slaughter them as you wish.” They released the button with an evil grin on their face.

~~~

“Didn’t we go this way before?” Toby asked as he ran behind Mickey, looking around him. “This hallway looks so familiar. I swear I saw that poster before!” 

“It all looks familiar because everything is the same color,” Mickey said, as he kept running. “And the poster looks like a propaganda poster. Considering everything we’ve seen, it makes sense those are practically everywhere.”

A loud scraping noise could suddenly be heard. As they turned a corner, Mickey realized what was going on. He cursed under his breath as he slowed down. He walked over to the poster and glared at it. He tore it off the wall and stuffed it into his pockets. He had no idea his motivation for doing so was “I’m going to burn this later since it’s the only thing here I can burn.” 

“Hey, Mickey. There’s a door up ahead!” Toby ran over to it. “It might be our ticket out of here.”

That’d be way too convenient for them, especially when the lab could change at will. No, it must be a trap. That theory was proven correct Toby opened the door and got attacked by some weird purple monster. He was able to swat it away with a bat he had on him, but he had to run away when a swarm of them flew out of the room. 

One of them ran towards Mickey, but Toby bashed it on the head. “Don’t fret, Mickey! I got these guys!”

“What even are these guys, anyway?”

“Blotlings! These guys are usually aggressive, but these guys look angry!” Toby looked behind them. “We should get out of here! We’re outnumbered!”

They turned around, just as the hallways rearranged again. They were trapped. 

“What now!? We can’t just die here- Whoa!”

Toby grabbed Mickey when he felt himself get grabbed. Both of them were dragged into a… wall?

“What the-“

“Shh! They’ll hear us!” Someone whispered. “This place has more secrets than one would think… Like walk-through walls.”

Toby gasped. “Alice! You’re alright!”

~~~

Alice, as she was called, rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m alright, but we can talk later. I managed to contact, and got ourselves a ride.”

“That’s so cool!” Toby was grinning but stopped when he realized something. “Oh, right! Hey, Alice, I found someone who’s trapped here as well. He says his name is Mickey, but I think it’s a scrapped version of Mickey Mouse.”

Alice looked over at Mickey. “A scrapped version of Mickey Mouse, huh?” Walked over to Mickey, and squinted at him. “Quick question: How do you feel about the Mad Doctor?”

Mickey looked back at the wall that they came through. “Um… I would say…” He took a deep breath and looked back at Alice. “I don’t like him.” He told her, trying not to say hate. Hate was a strong word. But it didn’t feel strong enough…

Alice smiled and held her hand out. “Same here, Mickey man. Welcome to our little rebel squad.”

Mickey smiled, and reached for Alice’s hand, but stopped when they heard a “thud” above them. They looked up but saw nothing.

“Was that… Did that come from inside the vents?” Mickey asked. 

“Yeah, it did.” Alice glared at the ceiling. “Come on! There might be Splatters in there or even Beetleworx. We gotta get moving!”

“Splatters?”

“A type of Blotling. I’ll explain later!”

Alice ran off, leading the way, and Toby and Mickey followed behind her. From the vents, not a Blotling nor a Beetleworx was watching, but a rabbit instead. He had a remote with radar on it and he was looking for something. It was close by. 

The rabbit followed the radar until he was on top of his prey, and then kicked the vent gate open. He jumped through the opening into the room and looked around. He didn’t find anything, but that couldn’t be.

Before he could continue searching, music started playing on the intercom. He had a sudden chill as it played, and it worsened as he heard footsteps. He turned around to see a hooded figure walking towards him.

_ “Oh, a visit from the very best,”  _ They sang, in a deep masculine voice with a strong accent. As they sang, they took off the hood to reveal the face underneath. The figure was a human male, with bushy eyebrows, a slick mustache, and a long beard, all in a deep shade of black, and on his bald head was a pair of goggles.  _ “Welcome Oswald, my dear guest!” _

Oswald, as the rabbit was called. Glared at the man. This man that’s currently in front of him was the Mad Doctor, the cause of all of Oswald’s suffering. The Doctor chuckled and pulled out a container with a pink object in it. 

“Wait… is that-“

The Doctor nodded. “Correct.  _ Taken from the very start,”  _ Doc stepped on a part of the floor that had a hidden button. Behind him, a monitor turned on, and on it was a picture of Mickey Mouse with a huge hole in his chest.  _ “The one and only, Mickey Mouse’s heart!” _

Oswald gasped at the grotesque image. It made him sick, in every part of his body. It took all of his strength not to empty his stomach. Mind you, Oswald didn’t care for the mouse, not one bit, but this was horrible beyond words. 

Oswald’s thought process was interrupted when the Doctor shoved the Heart Capsule in Oswald’s face.  _ “Wasn’t it your dream to rise someday?”  _ The Doctor smirked, then jumped back to a wall with a button surrounded with glass.  _ “Well, looks like your dreams shall fly away!”  _ With that last statement, Doc slammed his fist on the button, causing the glass to break and shards to stick into his hand. 

A good chunk of the room started spitting up. The part where Doc stood started rising into the air as he laughed. Oswald tried to get a running start and jumped towards the rising area. He grabbed at the railing, but it just brushed against his fingertips. Inevitably, he fell.

Outside of the lad, away from the communion, Mickey, Toby, and Alice had exited the lab. They heard and felt the ground shake. Mickey turned around to see the part of the lab go up into the sky. Before he could get a better look, Alice grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to a vehicle that was parked across from them. 

“Alice!” Someone from the car yelled. “Over here!”

A loud slam echoed through the halls, heavy short breaths escaped him. He leaned against the door, his entire being filled with anger. He knew it wasn’t like him, but with his chest aching, head-spinning, and mind fuzzy, he didn’t care. “Stupid lab,” he grumbled as he started walking. “I hate those stupid robots… What’s their deal anyway?”

He continued onwards, and only stopped when he heard some footsteps. The pattern was slow and slightly unsure, but he should be cautious. He tip-toed until he got to the corner, and waited. After a moment, he quickly turned said corner and pointed the weapon he conveniently had on him. The weapon was an oversized, glorified brush.

“Stop right there!” He shouted, pointing the oversized, glorified brush at a person. The person was wearing a hood, and they raised their hands in the air. He continued, “Who are you? Take off your hood and show yourself!”

“Whoa! Hey! Calm down, man! I’m a friendly bear!” They said, their voice masculine, so it was a guy. The man took off his hood, revealing a, as he claimed, bear. “Name’s Toby, and I got nothing to do with the Mad Doctor.”

“Mad Doctor?”

“Yeah! The guy who owns this lab!” Toby sighed. “You must be new around here! What’s your name?” Toby asked as he held out his hand.

“Michael, Mickey for short.”

“Wait, Mickey… as in, Mickey Mouse?” Toby looked at Mickey. “That can't be… Mickey’s ears don’t melt like that… Unless you’re a scrapped version…” 

Mickey raised an eyebrow. His ears weren’t melting! What was this man talking about? Mickey reached up to feel he was sorta… squishy. He pulled his hands down and looked at them to see that his gloves were stained by a weird purplish substance. 

Toby looked back. “We need to get out of here. I found the exit as I was looking for a friend of mine. I can take you to it if you’d like.”

Mickey smiled, but it felt like he was smiling wrong. Like he was smirking. “Finding the exit would be one less thing to worry about, thanks.”

Toby smiled. “Follow me! You’ll be out of here in no time!” 

~~~

Hours passed as they ran through the halls. The sound of feet meeting metal echoes in the halls, and their ears. The lab was massive, and those robots were everywhere. They are called beetleworx, but most of them look nothing like beetles.

“It’s over here! Around this corner!” Toby pointed ahead, at the mentioned corner. “I told you that you’d be out of here in no time!”

Mickey wanted to say something about how it took too long, but that was gonna be saved for later. Eventually, they made it to the corner and turned it. However, it wasn’t going to be that easy. 

“Dead end… Out of all the things, a dead end...” Mickey mumbled before he turned around and glared at Toby. “A dead-end is the opposite of what I wanted you to lead me to!”

Toby backed up. His hands raised, and his eyes wide. “Whoa! Chill dude! You’re melting even more now!”

“I’m not-“ Mickey looked at his arm, seeing droplets of black coming off and floating to the sky. “What the…”

Toby walked past Mickey and placed his hands on the wall. “There was a door here, and it was open.” He felt the wall, trying to find something. “I swear, but it’s like this lab is changing on us!”

Suddenly, red lights started flashing as an alarm went off. Some static was heard, followed by a voice. “MM1928 and TB1928 have escaped! I repeat! MM1928 and TB1928 have escaped! Capture them! Do not hesitate to kill if they resist!”

Mickey shook his head. “So they notice, huh?” He started to walk away from the door. ”Come on. I don’t want to get caught here.”

Toby followed. “I wonder why we have the same ID numbers?” He innocently asked as they walked past a security camera.

“Oho, what’s this?” The one behind the monitors said. “Those little pests are trying to escape? Well, that won’t do.”

They reached over to a button next to them. “Slight change of plans,” they said when they pushed the button. “MM1928 and TB1928 won’t be necessary anymore. Feel free to slaughter them as you wish.” They released the button with an evil grin on their face.

~~~

“Didn’t we go this way before?” Toby asked as he ran behind Mickey, looking around him. “This hallway looks so familiar. I swear I saw that poster before!” 

“It all looks familiar because everything is the same color,” Mickey said, as he kept running. “And the poster looks like a propaganda poster. Considering everything we’ve seen, it makes sense those are practically everywhere.”

A loud scraping noise could suddenly be heard. As they turned a corner, Mickey realized what was going on. He cursed under his breath as he slowed down. He walked over to the poster and glared at it. He tore it off the wall and stuffed it into his pockets. He had no idea his motivation for doing so was “I’m going to burn this later since it’s the only thing here I can burn.” 

“Hey, Mickey. There’s a door up ahead!” Toby ran over to it. “It might be our ticket out of here.”

That’d be way too convenient for them, especially when the lab could change at will. No, it must be a trap. That theory was proven correct Toby opened the door and got attacked by some weird purple monster. He was able to swat it away with a bat he had on him, but he had to run away when a swarm of them flew out of the room. 

One of them ran towards Mickey, but Toby bashed it on the head. “Don’t fret, Mickey! I got these guys!”

“What even are these guys, anyway?”

“Blotlings! These guys are usually aggressive, but these guys look angry!” Toby looked behind them. “We should get out of here! We’re outnumbered!”

They turned around, just as the hallways rearranged again. They were trapped. 

“What now!? We can’t just die here- Whoa!”

Toby grabbed Mickey when he felt himself get grabbed. Both of them were dragged into a… wall?

“What the-“

“Shh! They’ll hear us!” Someone whispered. “This place has more secrets than one would think… Like walk-through walls.”

Toby gasped. “Alice! You’re alright!”

~~~

Alice, as she was called, rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m alright, but we can talk later. I managed to contact, and got ourselves a ride.”

“That’s so cool!” Toby was grinning but stopped when he realized something. “Oh, right! Hey, Alice, I found someone who’s trapped here as well. He says his name is Mickey, but I think it’s a scrapped version of Mickey Mouse.”

Alice looked over at Mickey. “A scrapped version of Mickey Mouse, huh?” Walked over to Mickey, and squinted at him. “Quick question: How do you feel about the Mad Doctor?”

Mickey looked back at the wall that they came through. “Um… I would say…” He took a deep breath and looked back at Alice. “I don’t like him.” He told her, trying not to say hate. Hate was a strong word. But it didn’t feel strong enough…

Alice smiled and held her hand out. “Same here, Mickey man. Welcome to our little rebel squad.”

Mickey smiled, and reached for Alice’s hand, but stopped when they heard a “thud” above them. They looked up but saw nothing.

“Was that… Did that come from inside the vents?” Mickey asked. 

  


“Yeah, it did.” Alice glared at the ceiling. “Come on! There might be Splatters in there or even Beetleworx. We gotta get moving!”

“Splatters?”

“A type of Blotling. I’ll explain later!”

Alice ran off, leading the way, and Toby and Mickey followed behind her. From the vents, not a Blotling nor a Beetleworx was watching, but a rabbit instead. He had a remote with radar on it and he was looking for something. It was close by. 

The rabbit followed the radar until he was on top of his prey, and then kicked the vent gate open. He jumped through the opening into the room and looked around. He didn’t find anything, but that couldn’t be.

Before he could continue searching, music started playing on the intercom. He had a sudden chill as it played, and it worsened as he heard footsteps. He turned around to see a hooded figure walking towards him.

_ “Oh, a visit from the very best,”  _ They sang, in a deep masculine voice with a strong accent. As they sang, they took off the hood to reveal the face underneath. The figure was a human male, with bushy eyebrows, a slick mustache, and a long beard, all in a deep shade of black, and on his bald head was a pair of goggles.  _ “Welcome Oswald, my dear guest!” _

Oswald, as the rabbit was called. Glared at the man. This man that’s currently in front of him was the Mad Doctor, the cause of all of Oswald’s suffering. The Doctor chuckled and pulled out a container with a pink object in it. 

“Wait… is that-“

The Doctor nodded. “Correct.  _ Taken from the very start,”  _ Doc stepped on a part of the floor that had a hidden button. Behind him, a monitor turned on, and on it was a picture of Mickey Mouse with a huge hole in his chest.  _ “The one and only, Mickey Mouse’s heart!” _

Oswald gasped at the grotesque image. It made him sick, in every part of his body. It took all of his strength not to empty his stomach. Mind you, Oswald didn’t care for the mouse, not one bit, but this was horrible beyond words. 

Oswald’s thought process was interrupted when the Doctor shoved the Heart Capsule in Oswald’s face.  _ “Wasn’t it your dream to rise someday?”  _ The Doctor smirked, then jumped back to a wall with a button surrounded with glass.  _ “Well, looks like your dreams shall fly away!”  _ With that last statement, Doc slammed his fist on the button, causing the glass to break and shards to stick into his hand. 

A good chunk of the room started spitting up. The part where Doc stood started rising into the air as he laughed. Oswald tried to get a running start and jumped towards the rising area. He grabbed at the railing, but it just brushed against his fingertips. Inevitably, he fell.

Outside of the lad, away from the communion, Mickey, Toby, and Alice had exited the lab. They heard and felt the ground shake. Mickey turned around to see the part of the lab go up into the sky. Before he could get a better look, Alice grabbed him by the arm and dragged him over to a vehicle that was parked across from them. 

“Alice!” Someone from the car yelled. “Over here!”

“Julius! Get the car started! Make sure there’s room for one more!” 

“One more?” Julius looked over at Mickey. “OH! Gotta covered! He can sit on the shotgun side.” So, the front seat. 

The three reached the car, Alice and Toby at the back, and Mickey in the front. The car made a speedy getaway, and Mickey watched as the laboratory faded off into the distance. All he could think was, “Good riddance.”

“Well, ain’t that something. When I heard there was a plus one, I didn’t expect to see Mickey the Mouse.” Mickey jolted and slowly looked behind him. In the driver's seat, was a familiar face known as Big Bad Pete. “Well, how’s life been treating ya?”

Mickey let out a high pitched scream.

“Julius! Get the car started! Make sure there’s room for one more!” 

“One more?” Julius looked over at Mickey. “OH! Gotta covered! He can sit on the shotgun side.” So, the front seat. 

The three reached the car, Alice and Toby at the back, and Mickey in the front. The car made a speedy getaway, and Mickey watched as the laboratory faded off into the distance. All he could think was, “Good riddance.”

“Well, ain’t that something. When I heard there was a plus one, I didn’t expect to see Mickey the Mouse.” Mickey jolted and slowly looked behind him. In the driver's seat, was a familiar face known as Big Bad Pete. “Well, how’s life been treating ya?”

Mickey let out a high pitched scream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The picture is made by https://instagram.com/artisticmouse?igshid=1fvxeyzemz46v


	3. Chapter Two

The landscape passed by them quicker than their mind could register. Mickey looked out of his window, having nothing to do. Alice, Toby, and Julius were having their discussion, and as much as he would like to talk to the driver, there were a couple of setbacks. One, the driver was driving, and two, the diver was Pete. Mickey had no idea why Pete was here, but he was.

But what was here, anyway? And why is he here as well? All he remembered was a brush, the one he had with him, and a strong impact. Mickey looked towards the sky, wondering if there was a hole in the sky. How was he supposed to leave if his ticket out of here was up there?

“Hey, uh…” Mickey started, his mouth moving before he could. The three in the back stopped their conversion.

“What’s up, Mickey?” Alice asked, leaning up to the front.

“Where are we, exactly? Like, um…” How should he word this? “Am I in another world? I remember falling out of the sky, and nothing more after that.”

Pete laughed. “You’re in Wasteland, buddy!” Pete leaned back in his seat, taking his hands off the wheel, and putting his peg leg inside one of the little holes in the wheel. “The world of the forgotten toons! It was paradise before all this nonsense happened!”

“Wait, toons? Nonsense? What are you talking about?”

“Toons are more self-explanatory than you think,” Julius said, leaning forward as well. “I was a cartoon character from a show called Alice Comedies, and Alice here was the same Alice from that show!”

“I find that hard to believe…” Mickey squinted at them. “What about this ‘nonsense’ talk?”

They were quiet for a moment, looking uncomfortable. Toby leaned forward and spoke up. “There was a disaster. A bottle of thinner fell from the sky, and wiped out a lot of people, and turned a lot of Wasteland inert. After that was the Blot, and those Blotlings you’ve seen before came from it. The queen disappeared, the king went missing, and there are no heirs to take their place, and-“

Alice put a hand on Toby’s shoulder. “I think you should stop… You’re crying.”

“Huh? Oh. Sorry…” Toby wiped his tears away. 

“So a lot of things happened…” Mickey looked over at his window. He bit back the urge to ask why he should care. 

“Hey, Mickey. I’ve been meaning to ask this. What’s with this brush?” Toby pointed at the said brush. “You’ve kinda been holding onto it, so I was just wondering.”

Mickey shrugged. “No clue. My head is clouded and fuzzy, but… I don’t think it belongs to me.” Mickey looked at Toby. “I have no idea how it works.”

“I bet it’s something magical,” Alice chimed in. “We should see the gremlins about it! If it’s magical, a gremlin knows it. At least, that’s what I’m told.”

“Gremli-“ The car suddenly jumped. The gang was bounced upwards, and some of them hit their heads. 

“Pete! Be careful! That hurt!” Julius rubbed the sore spot on his head. “What’s the deal?!”

“We got some Blotlings up ahead! Seers, Spatters, Sweepers, the whole shabang!” Pete slammed on the gas. “Buckle your seatbelts! We got ourselves a bumpy ride!” 

“Pete, no!”

The car drove through the horde of Blotlings, resulting in the remains of the Blotlings getting on the car. Pete activated the windshield wipers and kept going. Through the dirty window, Mickey saw a fat Blotling on the road. It was blocking the road, and it looked bigger than the car.

“Pete! Stop! That’s a Spladoosh! It’s gonna take out the road! Pete!”

“Oh, crud!” Pete slammed on the breaks, and the car stopped just barely. 

It lightly bumped the Spladoosh, and it woke up. 

“Out of the car! Out of the car, now!”

Everyone quickly got out, not questioning why. Mickey ended up tripping and falling on his face. He looked over at the Spladoosh, and it was bigger. On instinct, he pointed the brush at the creature, and a green liquid shot out of the brush’s tip. The Spladoosh got bigger, and Mickey panicked. 

“Quit lollygagging!” Mickey felt himself getting picked up and dragged off. 

Mickey watched as the Spladoosh exploded, and the road completely disappeared. The area where the car was had remained, but the car disappeared as well. 

“What in the hey was that?” Toby asked. 

“I… I don’t know…”

Mickey heard a strange growl. He looked over to see Pete practically fuming. Some stream was coming out of his nose, and his ears. He was grumbling and mumbling things he shouldn’t say. He let out a scream, a roar more accurately, and stomped up to the mouse. Pete then grabbed Mickey by the collar, picked him up, and shook him.

“You stupid mouse! You made that thing explode faster! I don’t know how you did it, and either you’re too dumb to know, or you don’t care!” Pete dropped Mickey, then leaned over to tower over the mouse. “Why I oughta throw you into a thinner pool!’

Alice squeezed in between the two and barricade the two from each other. “Cut it out, Pete! Of course, he didn’t know! He’s new here!” Alice sighed. “We’re probably gonna have to walk, but we’re not too far from Mean Street.”

Pete grumbled. “Fine, but I don’t trust this rat!”

“Then we’ll put him in the middle.” Julius decided. “That way, he can’t attack us from the back, and he won’t run ahead.” Julius looked at Mickey and gave him a small smile. “Nothing against you, Mick, but Pete can be a stickler for these kinds of things…”

Mickey shook his head to rid himself of the dizziness and sudden nausea when Julius smiled. “As long as I’m away from him, I don’t care where you place me.” 

Mickey was worried about why he became nauseous at the smile, but it could just be a coincidence. 

“Let’s get going,” Toby said, nervously looking around. “I’m pretty sure those Blotlings won’t attack in a swarm like that without reason.”

The group nodded as they continued onwards.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Picture made by this person: https://www.instagram.com/artisticmouse/


	4. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, as much as kudos are cool, I would love some feedback.  
> Art made by: https://www.instagram.com/artisticmouse/

If it wasn’t for the watch Mickey had on him, he would’ve been convinced that it’d been hours that past, but it was only about ten minutes. His feet were aching, sweat rolling down on the back of his neck, flies were flying around him, but it had only been ten minutes. 

“Up ahead. We finally made it.” 

Alice pointed towards a town ahead of them. From where they were standing, Mickey could see that the town wasn’t in tip-top shape. Some buildings were destroyed and barely standing. There was some smoke rising into the sky, and the overall aura was just gloomy.

“What happened…?” Mickey felt… something. He wasn’t sure. 

Toby placed a hand on Mickey’s shoulder. “Welcome to MeanStreet. The central area of Wasteland… and the first area that was destroyed in the disaster…” 

~~~

MeanStreet was slightly worse when up close. The road was cracked, the bits of nature that decorated the town was dead, and the air was tense. The people who lived in the town were going on with their daily life, but one could notice their glare and shifty eyes. 

“What’s with this town?” Mickey looked around, noticing the people staring at him. “It feels like I’m suffocating under all of this hostility.”

“You noticed, huh?” Toby looked around as well. “It’s been like this ever since the disaster. There’s a silent civil war between those loyal to the king and those loyal to the Mad Doctor. You can’t trust anyone.”

Mickey honestly couldn’t care less about this “war.” He just wanted to go home. He didn’t believe that he should be here, but he was. A small part of him wondered if he should care more than he did.

“There should be a place where we can rest.” Julius butted in. “It’s a small apartment on top of the fire department. It’s the only place we could find that was empty.” 

“I see…” Mickey looked to see Pete had started walking away. “Hey! Where are you going?”

Pete looked back. “I guess ya couldn’t tell, huh? Well, I may not lookit, but I’m the mayor of this here town! I may be pals with Alice and her gang, but I’m neutral ‘bout this nonsense.” Pete then looked at Alice. “Course, she does own me for saving your butts. It ended up getting my car wrecked!”

Alice shrugged. “I’ll figure that out later. We got to take care of this mess.”

“Well, take care now. I can’t get any favors returned from the dead, now can I?” 

Alice chuckled and rolled her eyes. “We will!”

Toby waved. “See ya, Pete!” 

Toby looked back to see the rest of the group walking ahead, and rushed to regroup. He probably shouldn’t have waved for that long. 

~~~

A small apartment on top of the fire department was right. For one, it was the only fire department in MeanStreet, and two, it wasn’t a big department or apartment. Julius had the key to the apartment, so there was some relief that they didn’t steal it. After some struggle of actually getting the keys out and putting it in the keyhole, they went inside. 

Ironically, the inside of the apartment was bigger than the outside. When questioned, the only answer Mickey would get was “toon logic” along with some jazz hands. Except when he asked Alice, who said “toon logic” without jazz hands. 

The apartment was decorated with some bunk-beds, four of them, against the walls, a table off in a corner, and a soft carpet on the floor that added some color to the dull room. There were two doors between the bunk-beds, on opposite walls. The one to the left led to the kitchen-dining room hybrid, and the door on the right led to the “meeting room.” The “meeting room” was the bathroom, and it was surprisingly clean.

“Mickey, you’ll be sharing a bunk with Toby.” Alice pointed at the said bunk, which Toby was already on, sitting on the top bunk. 

“Why can’t I take one of the empty bunks? There’s four of them.”

“Trust me when I say this, those are taken.” 

Mickey squinted but sighed. “I see.”

Alice looked around. “Today’s mission was a total failure… However, it wasn’t completely for nothing. We have a new ally in the fight.” Alice looked at Mickey. “Mickey Mouse, we’re glad you’re with us in this!”

~~~

Mickey slowly opened his eyes, groggy from his nap. He sat up and looked around. The apartment seemed to be empty, and not a sound could be heard. Mickey rubbed the sleep from his eyes and started getting up from his bed when he heard something. It sounded like a page of a book getting flipped, and it sounded like it came from the bunk above him. 

“Toby?” 

A hum was heard, then Mickey saw some hands coming from above, then a familiar face. 

“Morning, Sleepyhead. Get enough sleep?” 

Mickey yawned. “I suppose so…”

Toby smiled, then straightened himself to where he wasn’t upside down. He then got down from his bunk. “You’re probably wondering why the apartment is empty.” He stretched when he got on the floor. “Alice and Julius went out to find some leads.”

Mickey raised an eyebrow. “Leads?”

“Ya know, the doc’s latest plan, the location of the king, any clues about the queen. Things like that.” Toby looked at the door. “We normally get paired in teams, and it looks like you’re stuck with me.” 

Seems like he was…

~~~

They were walking around MeanStreet, having no progress so far. In their defense, they just started. Toby said he would do the talking, and Mickey could be the tough guy that makes them talk. Mickey chuckled and rolled his eyes. 

“The best place we could go would be anyplace social. We got a few shops, an arcade, an ice cream parlor-“ Toby’s stomach growled at that, he gave off a sheepish look. “Um… you hungry by any chance?”

“No, why-“ Mickey’s stomach growled, probably louder than Toby’s. “Curse you…”

Toby laughed. “Come on, let’s get something to eat. The parlor is close by.”

~~~

The bell on the door jingled as it opened. Mickey and Toby walked through as the door shut behind them, jingling as it moved. The parlor wasn’t busy, there was a toon behind the counter, and two customers sitting at a table. 

The toon behind the counter noticed them and grinned. “Well, if it isn’t the bear of the hour! Who’s your new friend?”

“His name is Mickey. I think he’s a scrapped version of Mickey Mouse…” Toby shook his head. “That’s not why we’re here. We need something to fill our stomachs!”

The toon laughed. “Sorry about that.” He looked at Mickey. “The name’s Paulie, and I’m the owner of the Ice Cream Parlor!”

“Pleasure to meet you.” 

“Pleased to meet you as well.” Paulie looked back at Toby. “Speaking of ‘meet,’ I considered your idea, Toby. Having more options would be useful for business, but the question is… where am I gonna put the kitchenware, and that’s if I can get my hands on any…” 

While pondering this, Mickey heard something snap behind him. He tilted his head to where it wasn’t too obvious and realized one of the customers had broken something in their hands. A pencil, how odd.

Speaking of customers, Mickey started getting a good look at the two. The pencil snapper was a strange-looking human, but they had horns on their head and four fingers. They mostly wore blue, but what stuck out was a red bandanna around their neck that slightly moved as they violently shook in their seat, their eyes wide and pupils small as they looked at the general direction of the three.

The other one, however, was a different story. They were a rabbit, with feminine charm, wearing a red dress of all things in a place like this. She was looking out the window as she sipped on a milkshake with a straw made out of chocolate, fancy. She was calm as opposed to her partner, who was not calm at all. 

She glanced over at them, taking her mouth off the straw, and sighed. "Geduld, Liebling. Sie müssen mehr Kontrolle über Ihre Bedürfnisse haben." She whispered, it was amazing it was even heard at all. 

"Sag mir nicht, was ich tun soll Frau... Du bist nicht er..." The other one whisper, their voice more masculine, so clearly a male.

She shrugged. "Beschuldigen Sie mich nicht, wenn wir wegen Ihnen und Ihren Problemen herausgefunden werden." She took a sip as she looked over at the three, her eyes locking onto Mickey’s. 

Mickey noticed and looked away, realizing Toby was already ordering when he saw the bear near the glass that all the flavors were behind. Mickey tried to focus on what was in front of him, but he couldn’t help but hear the ominous whispers behind him.

"Flüchtlinge um drei Uhr."

"Du meinst neun Uhr?"

"Meine Rechte, deine Linke."

Mickey couldn’t understand what they were saying, but it wasn’t good. He could feel their glares on him. 

Mickey snapped out of it when he felt someone shaking him. He looked over to see Toby having a worried look on his face. 

“Hey, man, you alright? You’re zoning out.” 

“I…” Mickey sighed. “I’m fine.”

“I hope so…” Toby looked back at the ice cream flavors. “I was trying to ask you what ice cream you’d liked.” 

“If they have a vanilla raspberry swirl, I’ll take that. If not, normal vanilla will do.”

Toby nodded and continued ordering. Mickey decided to take a seat. Now, with how small the parlor was, there were three tables lined up against the wall that had a big window. The table where the couple sat was in the middle, so no matter where Mickey sat, he would be close to them. If he even tried to sit as far away from them as possible, he would end up getting a good view of their backside. It would be awkward, mostly for him.

He ended up sitting at the nearest chair to him so he wouldn’t be standing there like an idiot. Said chair was behind the crazy shaking guy. It was too late to move. Mickey looked over at Toby, who was still ordering. How long does it take to get ice cream? 

“Entschuldigen Sie bitte…”

Mickey felt a tap on his shoulder and a cold chill down his spine. He debated if he should turn or not, but his body moved before his mind did. The crazy guy, who was still shaking, was looking at the mouse. However, his pupils weren’t as dilated anymore, and he looked as confused as Mickey felt. 

He cleared his throat. “Are you… okay?”

Mickey was surprised by the question. “Uh, me? Yeah, just peachy.” He let out his signature laugh. “I should honestly ask you that question.”

The rabbit chuckled a devious little chuckle. “Don’t worry about him. He gets cold very easily.” 

“Unsere Hauptbasis ist ein kalter Berg. Holen Sie sich eine bessere Entschuldigung.”

“Ich würde es tun, wenn Sie diesen übergroßen Mantel nicht die ganze Zeit tragen würden.”

“Halt die Klappe.”

Mickey raised an eyebrow. “I see…” He wished he could understand what they were saying. “Um… so…”

The rabbit gave Mickey elevator eyes. “Hang on, you’re Mickey Mouse, correct?” 

“I am. Why do you ask?”

She smirked. “Big fan. Names Fanny Cottontail. Mister Shaky here goes by Pascal.”

“Ich kann immer noch nicht glauben, dass dein Name Fotze ist.” Pascal mumbled. 

“Still, du. Du bist unhöflich vor unserem "Gast".” Fanny chuckled. “Pardon him. He doesn’t have any room to contain his anger.”

“I had no idea what he said…” 

“Oh. I see.” Fanny looked over at Pascal. “You’re not the only one… More people need to be more open-minded and learn a new language.”

Mickey shrugged. “Not everyone has time to learn a new language, and as handy as it is, there are so many languages that it’s kinda a gamble of what you ne-“

Mickey stopped when he felt something slip off his wrist and a clunking sound. He looked down and saw his watch had fallen off. From the looks of it, the buckle was broken. Which was strange, because that watch was new. 

Mickey bent over to pick it up, but it got snatched up. He looked up to see Pascal had it. Pascal was examining it and had a smirk on his face. He cleared his throat, his smirk fading as he looked at Mickey.

“I… can fix this, if you’d like.” Pascal glanced away. “I… have my tools with me…”

“You never leave home without them, do you?” Fanny sighed. “Don’t mind him, Mickey. He’s trying to help.”

Mickey waved it off. “It’s fine. I would like it back, though. It was a present from my girlfriend.”

Pascal nodded and turned around. Mickey sighed and looked over to see Toby finally coming over with the ice cream. 

“Sorry about the wait. Paulie was looking for the vanilla swirl. He wouldn’t stop till he got it.” 

“At least we finally got it.” Mickey held his hand out so Toby could give him his ice cream.

Toby gave the swirl to Mickey and glanced over to the two. “Making friends?”

“Not quite…”

Toby chuckled, looking over again. “Alright, I see how it-“ Toby suddenly gasped, nearly dropping his ice cream. “O-Os-O-Oswald?”

There was a slight, awkward silence. No one moved a muscle. Toby was staring at Fanny, who was nonchalantly sipping at her milkshake. She didn’t stop till the cup was empty and all that was left was that weird noise when you try to get more from an empty cup. Of course, it sounded different when the straw was made of chocolate.

Fanny sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m not.” She looked out the window. “Funny, I knew him, but this was the first time I got mistaken for him.”

More silence followed. Toby looked distraught. His shoulders and ears drooped. He slowly went to the seat opposite of Mickey and ate his ice cream in silence. If one paid attention, they could see that Toby was about to cry.

Mickey noticed, and he was upset that he didn’t care. That growing apathy and emptiness inside him bugged him. He wasn’t supposed to be like this, right? 

“Es wurde gepflanzt." 

Mickey looked over after hearing Pascal talking after being quiet for a while. 

Fanny gave Pascal a devious smile. “Gute Arbeit, Junge. Jetzt gib ihm die Uhr zurück.”

“Wenn Sie mich noch einmal so nennen, werde ich Ihre Kniescheiben stehlen.”

“Das ist lustig von dir zu kommen.” Fanny laughed, then leaned forward and booped Pascal on the nose. “Behandeln Sie so alle Mädchen, mit denen Sie sich verabreden?”

Pascal turned around and looked at Mickey. “Here. Fixed.” He handed the watch to the mouse. 

Mickey took it. The buckle was fixed, and nothing crazy changed from the looks of it. Mickey put the watch on and smiled. “Thanks, Pascal. I mean it.”

Pascal smiled. 

Fanny tapped on the table a few times. “Hate to interrupt, but I just remembered something that might help you.”

Mickey raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

“Rumor has it that Oswald has been seen in Tortooga. They’re just rumors, but it doesn’t hurt to check.” 

Toby piqued up. “Mickey, we have to check!” 

Mickey looked over at Toby. “Finish your ice cream and we’ll be off immediately!”

Toby nodded and started scarfing down his ice cream. Of course, he got a brain freeze from it. 

~~~

Heading north, they were told that a boat was available to be taken, with a fee. Toby made an offhand comment that there used to be an easier way to get from place to place, but they have been broken for a while. With the thinner sea being as high as it is, the only logical choice was to go by boat. 

Of course, up ahead was a small boat. It didn't look like much, but it'll do. Getting closer, Mickey noticed the familiar toon standing by the boat.

"Donald? What is he doing here?" Mickey asked, his eyes wide with surprise.

Toby chuckled. "Look closer. That's an animatronic version of your Donald." 

After finally getting up to the boat, Mickey saw what Toby meant. The Donald standing before them was indeed a robot. If it wasn't for the fact that Toby told him this or the exposed robotic parts of his body, Mickey would be shocked by the fact that Donald was missing his eyes.

"Hey! Mickey!" Donald walked up the two. "What are you doing here? If I'd known you were here, I would've come say 'hi'!"

"Long story, Donald, but we need to get to Tortooga. We're looking for Oswald."

"You're looking for Oswald?" Donald squinted in suspicion. "What for?"

"We need him to-" Toby was cut off when Donald covered his mouth.

"Be quiet!" Donald whispered. "You don't know who's listening!" Donald removed his hand from Toby's mouth.

Toby whispered. "We need Oswald to defeat the Mad Doctor." Toby clasped his hands together and shook them in a pleading motion. "Please, he's our only hope." 

And why hasn't this 'final hope' done anything, Mickey wondered before shaking his head to get rid of the thought.

Donald looked at the two. "Okay, I'll help you. Hop on and let's go." He went in the boat to get it started.

Mickey and Toby got on. After a bad start, the boat finally got moving to Tortooga.

Very slowly and anticlimactically.


End file.
